"The economics made it a challenge": CBS chief finally opens up about the cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

The cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was announced in July 2025 by Colbert himself during the taping of his show. The news of the cancellation of one of the leading late-night talk shows garnered support from all over the world for the host, including from other late-night TV hosts.

With support for the host came criticism for the network, which has finally revealed the reason behind the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. As revealed by Deadline, with the merger deal of Paramount and Skydance successfully closed, George Cheeks, Chair of TV Media at the company, shared that the decision to cancel the late-night talk show was solely due to financial constraints.

He said:

"We are huge fans of Colbert, we love the show, unfortunately the economics made it a challenge for us to keep going."

More on this in our story.

CBS chief reveals financial challenges

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been one of the leading late-night talk shows since its premiere in 2015. Whether celebrity guests or political ones, Colbert engaged in all types of conversations with them and kept the audience entertained. However, the show has been cancelled and won’t be returning next year after Colbert’s contract ends in 2026.

There were numerous theories about why the decision was made; the most agreed-upon was the political alignment of CBS after Donald Trump assumed the Presidency again earlier this year. However, CBS chief George Cheeks revealed it was not politics but financial reasoning behind The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

He spoke to Deadline about the decline in the advertising marketplace for late-night TV as one of the reasons. He said:

"The challenge in late night is that the advertising marketplace is in significant secular decline."

The other major reason he mentioned that affected the network’s late-night shows was Taylor Tomlinson’s refusal to come back to host another season of After Midnight, due to her wanting to go back to touring as a stand-up comedian.

He shared that after Tomlinson’s show got canceled, the network was sure that they would not be able to continue the late-night shows anymore. In addition, he also talked about Skydance’s investment in profitable shows, which made late-night TV shows last in the pecking order.

He said:

"I know [Skydance] is going to invest, but they’re going to invest cautiously and wisely, so for me, managing this business is really important for me to double down [in] primetime and sports."

While he refrained from revealing the actual amount, Cheeks also said that the Stephen Colbert-hosted show was losing a lot of money rather than being a profit for CBS, and concluded by saying:

"At the end of the day, it just wasn’t sustainable to continue."

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